Reconditioned firearms



Nov. 12, 1963 s. A. SCHLAPPICH I RECONDITIONED FIREARMS Filed July 21, 1960 I -h'AND HAMMERED .h mm WM 7.0. N D. R 0 0 VM m w A A J r a u I S M United States Patent Ofi ice Patented Nov. 12, 1963 3,ll@,223 RECQNDHTIONED FIREARNS Stuart A. Schlappich, 64%} N. llith St Reading, Pa. Filed Early 21, 1960, Ser. No. 44,392 ll Qlaim. (Cl. 893l96) This invention relates to improvements in firearms, particularly pistols, to improve their accuracy in firing.

The conventional army 45 caliber pistol, as well as other pistols, even when new do not shoot with the accuracy of other caliber pistols, such as .22 and .38, therefore such pistols are not good enough for competitive shooting.

Attempts have been made in the past to improve the accuracy of such pistols by providing fancy grips, better sights, and various other items. Locksmiths have attempted to improve the accuracy of such pistols by spring loading, that is, by providing spring loaded plungers, balls and other devices, for forcing the fit always in one direction; also by substituting one part of one gun for that in another or by substituting new parts for old worn ones. These have not met with success since after shooting about 3000 rounds the pistol loses it accuracy again.

An object of my invention is to provide an improved used gun which is devoid of the above named disadvantages and which has great accuracy of fire so as to be comparable with, or even better than, that of a new gun.

A further object of the invention is to improve the accuracy of a gun, such as a pistol, by hard chrome plating selective parts in a manner so as to provide a snug fit which is maintained for an exceedingly long time and thereby provide an abnormally long life of accurate shooting, which greatly surpasses that of conventionally improved guns.

Other objects and advantages will become more apparent from a study of the following description taken with the accompanying drawing wherein:

The single FIGURE is an exploded view of a pistol of the Smith & Wesson type showing the only parts that require improvement in fit in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, the essential parts of a conventional Smith & Wesson 9 mm. automatic pistol which require improvement in the manner to be described hereinafter are shown. Numeral 1 denotes the slide having a track portion 1a, 1a. Numeral 2. denotes the barrel bushing, numeral 3 denotes the barrel having a rear portion 3b slidably mounted relative to the bushing, and numeral 4 denotes the frame having a track portion do on which the slide track portion slides and a front portion 412. Of course, there are other parts of the pistol which have been omitted for the purposes of clarity since they need not be improved in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

In order to eliminate any sideways or up and down motion, the slide 1 and frame 4 are first hand hammered to remove most of the play in the dovetail fit which exists between the frame and slide. The four parts illustrated on the drawing are hard chrome plated, either throughout or in portions thereof and are selectively plated to various thicknesses as desired in order to make the parts 2 fit snugly. The slide 1 is plated only in its track portion 1a, 1a. The barrel bushing 2 is completely plated so as to provide an outer plating 2a and an inner plating 2b. The barrel 3 is completely plated on outer portions 301 with the exception of the bore and chamber. Frame 4 is plated only in the track portion 411 for slide 1 and after plating, the barrel bushing is hand ground and fitted on the barrel. The slide 1 should also be hand fitted to the frame.

The various coatings are of sufficient thickness to eliminate play of looseness and yet insufficient to effect binding or abnormal friction between parts.

I have found, through practical experience, that the above described method provides an amazing improvement in accuracy of fire, which accuracy is maintained for many times longer than that obtained by conventional methods.

The present invention is applicable to pistols of various types, such as the Army .45, Colt .22, Luger .22 etc. as well as to other guns and firearms by properly fitting corresponding parts thereof.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided an efiicient method for improving the fit between parts of guns, particularly pistols, so as to improve their accuracy for target shooting or the like, so as to be comparable with, or even better than, the accuracy of a new gun or pistol; furthermore, I have provided a reconditioned gun which will maintain this improved accuracy for an extremely long period of time, that is, considerably longer than the life of heretofore reconditioned guns.

While I have illustrated and described a single embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that this is by way of illustration only, and that various changes and modifications may be made within the contemplation of my invention and within the scope of the following claim.

I claim: A reconditioned pistol having substantially improved accuracy of fire, comprising a frame including a track 43 portion, a slide including a track portion slidably mounted on said frame portion, said frame and slide track portions being hammered and chromium plated sufficiently to prevent looseness in their relative sliding movement, a barrel bushing which is completely chromium plated, and

45 a barrel which is plated on the outside surface and unplated on its bore and chamber.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,563,675 T ansley Dec. 1, 1925 2,127,793 Walther Aug. 23, 1938 2,285,583 Jennings et a1. June 9, 1942 2,489,816 Reilly Nov. 29, 1949 2,661,643 Olson Dec. 8, 1953 2,687,591 Lamb et a1. Aug. 3-1, 1954 3,014,851 Bommerscheim Dec. 26, 1961 OTHER REFERENCES The New Oificial Gun Book, Third Edition, Crown Publishers, Inc, copyright 1952, by Charles R. Jacobs, page 170. 

